


have a cup of tea and tell you of my dreaming

by boo98 (butter)



Category: Produce 101 (TV), Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Basically Hogwarts, M/M, Siren Sewoon, Wizard Daniel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-28
Updated: 2017-04-28
Packaged: 2018-10-25 00:58:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10753389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/butter/pseuds/boo98
Summary: Spellwriting 400: PracticumThe student will study the history of spellwriting as well as modern methodology and theory. The course will end in a final presentation of their practicum project, to be completed in assigned groups of two. Practicum topics can include charms, hexes, and jinxes, as well as more complicated spellwriting, but must pass an IRB approval board for research on human subjects.Or; Jung Sewoon had always wanted to sing in front of people. Kang Daniel just wanted to get a passing grade.





	have a cup of tea and tell you of my dreaming

**Author's Note:**

> This pairing makes no sense!!! I am the first to admit it! But I was inspired by my darling Ponyo Sewoon and Harry Potter!Daniel, and the fic just happened. I hope you like it! For more feel free to follow me at ponyoprince on twitter!

The merpeople who go to the Seoul University of Magical Arts tend to be the most cliquey bitches out there, in Daniel’s experience. They all come from the same types of old magical families who vacation at the same beaches in Jeju and Hawaii and always have their noses tilted up like they think they’re better than everybody, when it really just looks like they’ll drown if it rains.

Or, Daniel guesses, that’s not the biggest issue for them. Being water creatures and all. Whatever. They still look dumb.

Anyways, everyone knows what merpeople are like. It’s why when he sits down across the table from his assigned partner for their spell-writing practicum his last year of uni that it takes him a while to connect all of the dots.

The thing is, Jung Sewoon looks completely unassuming. He has a small mouth and droopy eyelids that make Daniel wonder if he got enough sleep last night. Or, like, ever. He smiles at Daniel and holds out a hand. “Hi, I’m Jung Sewoon. It’s nice to meet you.”

Daniel grins back a little hesitantly but shakes his hand all the same. His palm is smooth, although his fingers feel callused to hell and back for some reason. “Kang Daniel. Sorry in advance if my spell-writing is shit, I’m a casting major.”

Sewoon laughs bashfully and lowers his eyes to flip through his notebook from lecture. “That’s alright. I’m a non-human relations major, which might be even further from this topic.”

Daniel laughs and flips a few pages in his notes too, before giving up the pretense when all he unearths are more sheets of paper with maybe a sentence of notes at the top before he apparently gave up. “Non-human studies? That must be interesting.”

Sewoon shrugs. “I guess. It just seemed relevant, I want to go into management in the future and I figured it’s important to know how to deal with all kinds of people.”

“Makes sense.” They lapse into a silence, and Daniel scuffs the toes of his sneakers against the floor. This is the first time he’s ever met Sewoon, is the thing, and it’s a little stressful to think that his GPA is riding on them getting along.

They had emailed back and forth a few times after receiving partner assignments from their professor and eventually figured out a meeting time. Sewoon had suggested one of the small student lounges in the Chemistry and Potions building, which were usually empty because all of the chem students were squirreled away in labs.

“Well,” Sewoon starts, looking back up at Daniel for a second before his gaze skitters back down to his notebook. “I guess the easiest thing to decide is the form of spell we want to focus on.” Sewoon’s wearing a baggy red sweater, and he picks at a loose thread on the cuff of one sleeve as he talks. “If neither of us are that confident in writing, a charm’s probably the easiest.”

Daniel nods and rests his chin on his hand. “Probably. Anything more than that and we’re way more likely to get some part of the equation wrong.”

“Right.”

“Right.”

“So, a charm.” Sewoon purses his lips into a birdlike pout as he thinks. “I’m alright at enchantment stuff, but we’d have to get in the IRB approval for that really quickly. Maybe a correction charm, then? Something like those cleaning ones we learned last unit?”

“Sounds good.” Daniel tries to read some of Sewoon’s notes upside-down, but the guy’s handwriting looks awful, and the edges of the notebook look a little water-stained and patchy for some reason.

More silence. Daniel doesn’t think he’s that awkward of a person, to let the silence last this long, but something about Sewoon’s hunched shoulders and scruffy haircut has him just watching as the other guy stares down at his notes like they’ll tell him the secrets of the universe. It’s another few moments before either of them talks.

“Do you want to go get coffee, or something?”

Daniel blinks. He hadn’t really expected that change of subject. “Uh. Sure?”

Sewoon shrugs. “I just… I get better ideas when I walk around a little bit. It could help with brainstorming.”

“Um, ok then. Yeah, sure, why not.”

It was raining that day. Daniel hadn’t remembered – he had forgotten an umbrella at his apartment, and so he’d just kind of relied on his snapback to shield his face from the water as he sprinted from the subway to class. It’s cold and cloudy and gloomy out, and when they get to the front door of the building Sewoon’s face drops like something killed his favorite pet.

“You ok?” Daniel watches as Sewoon huffs and digs around in his backpack a little.

“Yeah, it’s fine, it’s just – “ Sewoon seems to give up and zips his bag back up. “I didn’t realize it was going to rain today. I, um,” he blushes a bit. “I was actually in the library writing a paper all last night, so I haven’t had the chance to go home yet today.”

Daniel blinks. “Dude, it’s senior spring. You shouldn’t have to lock yourself down at school that long.”

Sewoon levels a dry, unimpressed look at him, and it almost distracts Daniel from the way he was nervously biting at his lips before. “Try taking a magical policy class, you’ll get over that idea of freedom pretty quickly.”

Daniel laughs. “Ok, sure, point.” He watches a bit more as Sewoon looks nervously outside at the rain that’s coming down in sheets now. “We don’t have to go anywhere right now, if you want? We can wait for it to slow down a little.”

“No, it’s ok, it’s just…” After a moment of thought Sewoon pulls his phone out of his back pocket and unlocks the screen with a swipe. “I’m not used to being on this side of campus. The Non-Human Studies building has a few courtesy umbrellas and stuff that you can rent,” he explains as he types something rapidly into his phone, as if that explains any of this.

“Courtesy umbrellas?” Daniel gives Sewoon one more onceover. The guy’s in scuffed-up sneakers just like Daniel is, with loose-fitting jeans and his big sweater. His fingers look long and thin from where he’s texting someone quickly, and seem almost a little crooked at the joints. His hair is normal black, just slightly shaggy and flopping in his eyes like he missed a haircut. “Wait, um, are you…?”

Sewoon glances over at Daniel in the corner of his eyes. “Take a guess.”

Daniel looks at him, feeling a little bowled over. “You don’t want to get wet, which means you’re either a _really_ picky feline-aspect or a – a merperson.”

“Ding ding ding.” Sewoon finishes his message and locks his phone again, turning more fully to Daniel. “I’ll get all gilly if I go out in that,” he says, gesturing to the rain with a tilt of his head. “Don’t worry, one of my friends is in the library right now, and he’s gonna bring me his umbrella in a few minutes.”

“Oh, um, ok.”

Sewoon seems to pick up on the note of hesitancy in his voice pretty easily because his mouth flattens a little as he looks over at Daniel. “Is this going to be alright? I don’t want to make you work with me if you’re, like, uncomfortable or something.”

“Oh my god, no, I’m not like – I’m not humanist or anything, I promise,” Daniel sputters out, shaking his hands in front of him. “I just didn’t expect that. You don’t look, um, like… like a lot of the merpeople I’ve seen before.”

Sewoon laughs a little at that, and folds his arms in front of him in a way that makes him hunch up, makes his posture smaller and more compact. “I get that a lot. We’re a newer family, from Busan, so we don’t really have the social leverage that a lot of other Mer families have, I guess.”

“Right.” Daniel laughs a little nervously and fidgets with the strap of his backpack. He doesn’t have to wait long before a gangly kid comes running up to the door through the rain, pushing open the door and grinning widely at Sewoon.

“Hyung!” He shakes himself off a little roughly, like a wet dog, and snaps the umbrella closed before handing it over to Sewoon. “Got you this.”

“Thanks, Gwanghyunnie.” Sewoon smiles at him, mouth soft and eyes warm, and takes the umbrella. “You really didn’t have to run, I’m not in a rush or anything.”

“Nah, I was getting tired being cooped up in the library anyways.” The kid, Gwanghyun, shoots a look at Daniel. “Is this your project partner?”

“Kang Daniel,” he goes ahead and introduces himself, and shakes hands quickly with Gwanghyun. “Casting department.”

“Oh, cool.” The kid zips his hoodie up to his chin and nods at the both of them. “I’ll see ya later then, hyung, good luck with your project.”

“I’ll probably be home late again, today,” Sewoon says, sounding resigned as he loops the curved handle of the umbrella around his thin wrist.

“You gotta take care of yourself,” Gwanghyun scolds, but grins anyways. His smile is a little toothier than normal, and Daniel marvels at how true it seems that all the non-humans hang out together. “I’ll see you back at the apartment, then. Wish me luck on my paper; runes are the worst.”

“Your fault for being such an archaic major,” Sewoon jokes, but his smile stays. “Good luck.”

Gwanghyun pulls his hood over his head and then he’s off again, dashing through the rain the way he came.

Sewoon watches him go with fond eyes before shaking his head and looking over at Daniel. “He’s a good kid, just kind of high-energy.”

Daniel barks out a laugh and follows Sewoon as he starts out the building. “If you think that’s high energy, I’ll have to introduce you to a hyung of mine. He makes the most insane faces. I always tell him he should go on a variety show.”

“That’s kind of nice, though.” The rain isn’t very hard, but it’s steady, and Sewoon carefully opens the umbrella above him before they’re even out of the door. “My friends always say I should emote more. They can never tell my mood based just off my face.”

“Really?” Daniel flips his snapback around so the bill is in front of his face, protecting him a little better from the rain, and trudges alongside Sewoon down the sidewalk. “I don’t think your face is that blank.”

Sewoon shrugs, although he looks a little pleased. “I dunno, it’s just what they say. I guess it’s the fish genes; they aren’t exactly the most emotive animals after all.”

Daniel snorts. “I’m not a non-human studies major but I don’t think that’s how that all works.”

Sewoon peers slyly over at him, mouth tilted up. “Well you’re not the expert, are you?” Daniel laughs and cedes the point, and they continue walking until they hit one of the small chain cafés that line the street just off of campus.

Daniel gets to the door first and holds it open for Sewoon, who awkwardly ducks his body inside the door while waiting until he’s fully under cover before closing the umbrella and shaking it off. Daniel follows him in, and they both get their drinks – iced Americano for Daniel, some hot ginseng tea for Sewoon – before sitting at a small table by the window.

Sewoon cups his hands around his mug when they sit, and Daniel pulls his eyes away from the slightly crooked curve of his fingers one more time to take a glance out of the window. “Gross weather, huh?”

“It’s almost April.” Sewoon looks outside too, expression wistful. “I’ve been hoping for sun by now.”

“We could always try writing a weather charm,” Daniel suggests, half-joking. “Really fuck up the weather patterns with an insta-sunlight spell.”

Sewoon laughs and shrugs, a small motion. “Sounds nice, but I’m hoping to not get this particular grade thrown out on an ethics issue.” He sets his mug to the side without drinking it and wipes at the ring of condensation it left on the table with a napkin before he rummages in his backpack and pulls out his notebook again. “Brainstorming, then.”

Daniel whips out his laptop and half-searches for ideas, half-texts one of his school seniors from a few years ago to see what he did for the practicum. Sewoon looks perfectly concentrated as he carefully writes out a list on his notepad, lips pursed as his mug of tea grows cool.

Eventually Daniel’s sucking up the last bits of Americano from the bottom of his cup and Sewoon starts like he got surprised by something. “Oh, I forgot,” he mutters, and takes a sip from his tea.

“Cold yet?” Daniel asks, watching as Sewoon makes a face and takes another sip before setting the mug back down.

“Not that bad.” He pulls the cuffs of his sweater further down his hands. It’s kind of cute. “I always do this when I’m home, make tea and forget I made it until it’s gone cold.”

“I feel that.” Daniel taps a few keys on his laptop, typing a string of nonsense characters into the Naver search bar before giving into curiosity. “So, like, how does it work?” He waves his hand in the vague direction of Sewoon’s mug, and then towards the street outside. “You and water. You’ll get gills if you’re in the rain but it’s ok to drink it?”

Sewoon’s mouth twists a little and he taps at the side of his mug with his fingernails. “It’s a little complicated. Most mers are fine with water as long as they’re not completely submerged in it – a heavy rain might make them a little gilly and scaley but they won’t sprout a tail or anything unless they’re, like, in the ocean or a tank or something.”

He pauses, and takes what looks like a bit of a bracing breath in. “I’m, um, a little more sensitive to it than others.”

Daniel blinks. “Is it just a genetic thing?”

“Sort of.” Sewoon bites at his bottom lip before continuing. “I’m a siren.”

And that – Daniel hadn’t expected that. His first instinct is to push his chair away from the table a little, just a bit, just to get a little further away from Sewoon, but he manages to tamp down that urge and instead just shifts in his seat in surprise. A siren.

He still remembers being in elementary school and learning about non-humans for the first time. Most of it was pretty benign, just some complicated clan wars-type history that he didn’t really get into until high school and was always too bored about to really pay attention to.

There was always the one point in any non-human history class, though, when you learned about Article 13 of the Magic Users and Non-Human Rights Agreement. The full bill itself wasn’t fully ratified until around the 1960’s, but Article 13 had passed with no argument.

It was also known as the Hazardous Non-Human Restraint clause. It was the reason that the one wolf kid in his high school had been medicalized the second he went alpha after puberty, and was also the reason that Daniel had never expected to meet a siren at a public university.

“I’m, um, I’ve never had an incident,” Sewoon sputters out, eyes still locked onto the surface of the table. Hs hands are sitting on the tabletop, and he’s firmly grasping at his forearms. “That’s why I could even be admitted to school in the first place. I have a panic button and everything, too, I’m always on code.”

Daniel feels sick, almost instantly, once he notices the slight, sickly green tint to Sewoon’s complexion. “It’s fine. Seriously, don’t worry about it, I just – I’ve never met a siren before.” He tries to catch Sewoon’s eyes and when he finally manages it he grins at him. “I’m serious. I’m not freaking out.”

Sewoon peers carefully at him before his posture relaxes, just a bit, and he lets out a soft breath. “I’m sorry, I just get a little tense whenever I come out to people.” He squeezes his forearms a bit, and glances out the window at the rain that’s picked up speed since they sat down. “I know people have mostly gotten way more progressive about it but you still meet a few who think you should be under constant surveillance every time you open your mouth.”

“That sucks.”

“Yeah.” Sewoon flicks his head a bit to get his hair out of his eyes and then sheepishly shrugs at Daniel. “I get used to it, though.”

“Still, you shouldn’t have to.” Daniel folds his arms on the table and leans forward a little. “I’m just a human wizard but I still get weird looks from my grandma whenever I bring up the fact that I study magic. It’s bullshit, what you must go through.”

Sewoon glances uncomfortably at the couple sitting across the room from them, as if they may overhear and storm over to give them a piece of their mind. They seem entirely engrossed in each other, though, and Sewoon looks back at Daniel after a moment. “I understand where some of them come from, though. My singing – it could be dangerous.”

“What does it do?” Daniel stops, reconsiders. “Sorry, I mean. I know you said you haven’t had any incidents, but… I always heard all the stuff they tell kids at school, about how sirens lure people to their deaths and stuff. No offense, but I really can’t picture you luring anyone to sprain their ankle, not to mention to their deaths.”

Sewoon snorts into his tea and takes a quick drink before replying. “I had a few issues when I was a kid, but that was all before the legal incident reporting age. I don’t really remember them, but my mom said that I would just kind of make people kind of woozy and agreeable.” He taps his fingers against his mug again in a nervous beat. “Obviously I haven’t exactly tried singing in public since I was seven.”

“Obviously.” Daniel clicks the cap of his pen a few times, and then something catches his attention. “In public? Do you sing in private, then?”

Almost immediately Sewoon tenses, and the tips of his ears grow redder and redder as Daniel watches, a little in awe. “Not much. I mean, yes, I do, um. I don’t know, my mom always says it just comes naturally to people like me.”

Daniel can’t help but ask. “What do you sing? What kind of music do you like?” A part of the back of his mind is already organizing some of his music into a playlist to link to Sewoon, which is dumb.

“I don’t know, a lot of stuff.” Sewoon thinks for a moment, drumming his fingers. “I play guitar, so I like a lot of acoustic covers and some indie music. Korean and Western. I, um,” he blushes even more, but the tips of his mouth turn up in a careful smile. “I write songs, sometimes.”

“Do you really?” Daniel leans forward again, and this time Sewoon doesn’t shrink back any. “That’s so impressive. I tried to learn composing music on my computer once but it just didn’t happen.” He laughs a little self-deprecatingly. “About the most practice I get these days is that I write raps, sometimes.”

“You rap?” Sewoon’s attention is grabbed by this, obviously, and his eyes go wider than they’ve been all day. “For how long?”

Daniel shrugs, preening a little on the inside from being the focus of Sewoon’s pointed stare. “I dunno, at first it was just me and some buddies of mine in middle school. Maybe when we were all 14? It’s nothing serious, though.”

“Still, that’s impressive. I write lyrics but they’re nothing special.” Sewoon opens his mouth to say something else, but then wilts a little in his seat.

Daniel watches this happen. “What? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, just – “ Sewoon smirks wryly and looks out the window at the grey sky outside. A bus drives by and splatters the sidewalk with dirty water. “Sometimes I just really, really wish I could sing to people. It’s just, it’s frustrating, you know? I have this thing that I’m kind of proud of, and that I like doing, and I can’t show anybody.”

He stops, and looks back over at Daniel. “Sorry, sorry, I know you’re not here for a therapy session for me.” He tugs at his sweater cuffs again. “Don’t mind me. We need to focus on our charm.”

That clicks something in Daniel’s brain. It’s dumb, but he’s been running with a lot of dumb ideas today for some reason. “We could do that.”

“That?” Sewoon glances carefully at Daniel’s empty Americano, as if concerned about his caffeine intake. “What?”

“That. For our charm, we could try to make something to help you. An – an anti-enchantment, I guess.” His brain is running so fast that he’s a little worried his head will start to smoke. He never thinks this hard in spell writing class. “Obviously it would be temporary. If there was a permanent option it would have been invented already. Maybe something like the one we use to cancel out effects of minor jinxes, only we would have to make it really specific. I’ve never read anything about anti-enchantments, but I’m sure the library has some stuff on it.”

He looks up from his laptop, where he had already started to hastily type some notes down, when Sewoon laughs softly. The other boy is shaking his head and grinning, but the edges of it are a little wistful. “What? You don’t think we could do it?”

“I’ll put it this way: if anyone could do it I’m sure you could.” Sewoon shrugs. “Just, think. You’re right, if it was just as easy as an anti-enchantment then I’m sure it’s been done before. What do two kids who are taking this course just to fulfil the core curriculum know about stuff this complicated?”

Daniel twists his mouth. He doesn’t exactly like being told he can’t do something. “We could at least try. Don’t you think we’d get bonus points for ambition?” Sewoon laughs, and the soft sound of it urges Daniel to move on. “We should do it. It’s something important to you, and neither of us are majors in this department anyways so as long as we pass it’ll be fine.”

Sewoon smiles and takes a careful sip of the last of his tea before setting the mug down away from his notebook. He looks carefully at Daniel, eyes dark, and for a second he feels the way that he imagines fish must feel when they spot a shark in the distance. Looming, watching.

Finally, Sewoon blinks and leans back in his chair. “Ok. Points for ambition, here we come.”

 

Turns out there’s lots about anti-enchantments in the library, but none of it relating to siren song. Daniel ends up frustratedly snapping shut more than a dozen books, where they then go to take up a graveyard section of the table that he and Sewoon had been camping out at for a week or so.

“I did tell you that this would be under-studied,” Sewoon reminded him more than once, not taking his eyes off of the article he was skimming.

“Why are we the first people to think of this?” Daniel demands one evening, after stacking the seventh failed book of the night on top of the rest. “Are sirens really that rare, that no one’s studying them?”

Sewoon shrugs and flips the page. “We’re about ten percent of the mer population, and there’s only around one million mers total throughout the world. It’s not insane to think that there’s no research on it. It’s a small sample size, if nothing else.” He frowns and places the print-out off to the side, rejected, and reaches for the next one. “Not to mention the low response rate any study would get from possible participants. If you couldn’t tell, most sirens are pretty hush-hush about the whole thing.”

“Really? I couldn’t have guessed.”

Sewoon finally shoots him a look, and it’s dry as the desert. “Plus I just can’t imagine that there are many researchers out there willing to make themselves vulnerable to siren song. It’s been proven to effect nearly everybody, after all.”

“Nearly? I thought it was just other sirens that had immunity?”

Sewoon tips his head to the side, considering. “Not exactly. It seems to be more like direct family that’s immune. Blood-related, so they usually are sirens as well, but not always. And – “ He stops, flushing, and takes a second before continuing. “There’s some evidence that people who are already charmed by the siren are immune to their song.”

Daniel blinks. “Already charmed? I thought that songs didn’t have an effect beyond the time that they’re being sung.”

“Not that kind of charmed.” Sewoon looks a bit like he wants to slither under the table and disappear. “Like… if it’s a person that’s fallen in love with the siren. They’re already agreeable to the siren, after all. Some people say it’s an evolution thing.” His cheeks are the color of tomatoes now. “You can’t have a very successful mating if your potential mate can’t listen to you sing without practically falling asleep.”

Daniel laughs way too loudly at that for being in a library at the hour that they are, and Sewoon is quick to hush him, although he doesn’t try that hard. Eventually Daniel quiets, sputtering out the last few giggles while hiding his eyes behind his hand. “Well. I’m glad that I’m doing good work in the name of science.”

“I genuinely think you may be the first person crazy enough to volunteer to be subjected to siren song possibly _multiple_ times.”

Daniel shoots him a wide grin and snaps open the cover of the next book. “Kang Daniel, expert in doing dumb shit, at your service.”

Sewoon snorts and looks back down at his article, cheeks still flushed and pink. Daniel watches as he skims over his print-out, lips moving just a little bit as he reads, and if it takes him a little longer than it should to look back down at his own book it’s just because the energy drink he bought a few hours ago is wearing off.

They draft something. It’s not amazing – it might not even do anything, Sewoon warns, as he jots out the last few lines of basic spellwork that comprise the blueprint of the charm. It’s something, though, and they transpose it into the traditional runes that shorten the actual verbal enchantment to something that only takes around thirty seconds to cast.

The time comes to give the spell its first try, and Sewoon invites Daniel over to his apartment.

“I don’t want to risk anyone else overhearing,” he explains over his shoulder as they climb the stairs of his building. “My room’s regulation sound-proofed, so we’ll just try it there. I sing in there all the time and Gwanghyunnie never hears anything. We should be fine.”

“Sounds good,” Daniel says, and he thinks he’s doing a pretty good job of not giving away the fact that his gut is twisting like snakes with anxiety. It’s not so much him not trusting Sewoon, and not wanting to be enchanted by him. It feels more like the pre-game jitters he got back in high school when he was on the soccer team.

Sewoon’s apartment is just as neat as Daniel suspected it would be. Gwanghyun’s there, and he looks up from the couch where he’s watching some cop drama with his laptop balanced on the cushion next to him.

“Hey hyung, hey Daniel,” he says, waving a little.

Sewoon waves back. “Hey. We’ll just be in my room for a bit.”

Daniel really wishes he hadn’t said it quite like that, because Gwanghyun’s face immediately morphs into something suspicious. Sewoon doesn’t seem to notice, thank god, and Daniel all but pushes him to walk more quickly down the hall to the door at the end.

His room is even neater than the rest of the apartment, if that’s possible. Daniel takes it in greedily – Sewoon’s a nice guy but he’s fairly reserved about personal details, and his room says more about him than he has over the past few weeks. He has a futon-style bed that’s folded up neatly in the corner, and a guitar case leans against the wall next to a simple desk. There’s a few posters on the walls but not many.

The most obvious part of the room, of course, is the tank. Sewoon busies himself with sorting through some notes at his desk, and Daniel takes the opportunity to really look at the tank. It’s clear glass, with what looks like some kind of filtration device attached to the end. It’s empty, too, although Daniel can see where it attaches to a water pump that in turn runs into the wall.

Sewoon turns around and catches him looking. “Oh, that.” He glances at the tank for a second before going back to flipping through his notes, and at this point Daniel can recognize a nervous gesture for what it is. “I have to shift forms once every few days, and it’s just easier getting a proper tank than trying to use a reguar tub in the bathroom or anything. Plus, you can get government refunds from buying regulation non-human required machinery, so it just made sense.”

“Right.” Daniel shakes his head and looks away, back to Sewoon. “Ok. Should I, like… sit, or something?” He wipes his palms on his jeans – when did they get so sweaty?

Sewoon frowns and looks around before nodding at the pile of bedding in the corner. “You can sit over there if that’s ok. I need to use the stool if I’m playing my guitar.”

“Yeah, totally, of course.” He kind of awkwardly settles down on the ground, leaning against the pile of blankets while Sewoon pulls his guitar out of the case and settles into the stool at his desk. Daniel crosses his legs and watches Sewoon tune the guitar carefully, long fingers careful at the frets, before Sewoon lets out a held breath and straightens the page of notes on the spell that he has laid out on the table.

“You should cast it, right?” Sewoon asks, brows pinched together a little nervously. “It’s a protection charm at its most basic level, so it wouldn’t make sense for the person that you’re trying to be protected from to cast it.”

Daniel starts. “Right, um, yeah.” He shifts and lifts up his hips so he can dig the folded up piece of notebook paper out of his back pocket, and Sewoon’s eyes skitter away from him to rest back on the strings of his guitar. Finally, Daniel gets the paper out and unfolded and spread flat on his knee, and he takes in a fortifying breath. “Ok, here goes nothing.”

Daniel’s a caster by nature – it’s why he picked his major, after all. He’s always been good at finding meaning in spells and placing the exact right emphasis on the verbal runes, always been good at visualizing the outcome the way that spellcasters are supposed to.

He’s never cast a spell that he wrote before, is the thing. Or, he has, but they were never anything that he had really written from scratch like this is. It’s a different feeling, more intimate in a way, and he feels himself keeping his gaze stuck to the paper as he chants.

He finishes after about a minute, and then hesitantly looks up at Sewoon.

Sewoon blinks at him, hands frozen on his guitar. “Do you feel any different?”

Daniel shrugs. “Not really? I don’t know if I _would_ feel any different though, you know? That’s why we’re experimenting like this.”

Sewoon nods carefully, tucking one foot into the rung of his stool so he can balance his guitar easier on his lap. “Ok. I’ll just – I’ll only sing for a little bit, ok? Like, a minute, max. I don’t want you to get too much exposure to it.”

He waits for Daniel to nod before settling in and then, after another long deliberation, strums the guitar. He’s tuned it by now so he only tries a few chords before settling into the progression of whatever song he’s singing and then – then he sings.

His voice is a little thin and warbly, is the first thought Daniel has as he tries to relax into the blankets behind him. Sewoon looks entirely at ease with his guitar, although Daniel knows pragmatically that the guy is probably freaking out internally. He hasn’t sung in front of another person in over ten years.

The song isn’t familiar, so Daniel finds himself hanging a little more onto the words than he might otherwise. Later on, he figures that the focus on the words kept him from noticing the effect that the siren song was having on him until later.

Because it does affect him. All of a sudden a feeling creeps in that has Daniel’s eyes catching on the long stretch of Sewoon’s neck, and on how thin his ankles look where they peek out between the cuffs of his jeans and his socks. He wants to wrap his hand around one of them and see how far his fingers overlap.

The chords of the guitar and the notes of Sewoon’s voice, just slightly husked with nerves, creep into Daniel’s chest and between his ribs. They run warm through his body like whiskey, down to his toes, and the more he listens to the song the more he thinks that standing up and walking over and cupping a hand gently around Sewoon’s throat just to feel the vibrations of his voice sound like a good idea.

Sewoon’s tone shifts into something like a warm ocean breeze, and Daniel’s swayed too far to the left before he realizes it. He only barely corrects his balance before he tips over completely, and the sharp movement distracts Sewoon enough that he notices what Daniel can only assume is a completely glazed look in his eyes.  

“Shit,” Sewoon curses, and stops playing with a jolt. Daniel’s still reeling a little while Sewoon all but throws the guitar back against the wall and then falls to kneel in front of Daniel. He takes him by the shoulders carefully and shakes him a little. “Hey, snap out of it. Are you ok?”

When Daniel doesn’t immediately respond Sewoon mutters another low curse and slaps his cheek, although it’s way too light to really do anything. By that point the enchantment of the song has mostly worn off, though, and Daniel blinks and refocuses on Sewoon’s face.

“I’m cool,” he says, voice rough and shot through and sounding almost post-coital. Daniel stops and coughs a few times, clearing his throat, and meanwhile Sewoon withdraws his arms and tucks his hands onto his lap. “Seriously, I’m good now. Geez.”

Sewoon lets out a tense breath. “I guess that answers that, then. It didn’t work.”

Daniel shakes himself out a bit and looks back down at the paper with the spell written on it. “Yeah, guess not.”

Sewoon flops back on the floor, resting against his hands and looking at Daniel. When Daniel looks back up at him he smiles, just a slight tilt of his mouth but it’s something. “Back to the drawing board.”

 

The drawing board lasts another week. They end up carving out a small corner of the library that the rest of the students know not to venture into. Daniel can get a pretty scary face when he’s annoyed and sleep-deprived, but Sewoon is the one who really chases everyone away. The kid’s teeth get _pointy_ when he’s stressed.

Jisung-hyung swings by one day when he gets off of work and ruffles Daniel’s hair approximately 20 times in the span of a half hour. He gives them what he probably thinks is useful advice, but it all ends up boiling down to: “You’re overthinking it, you Seoul punks always do that.”

“He’s from Busan, hyung,” Daniel shoots back, pushing Jisung off of where he’s hanging all over his back. “And you live in Seoul now, too.”

“Whatever.” Jisung stretches his arms up into the air and tips his chair so just the back two legs are touching the ground. “I still say you should simplify some of these runes. I bet you’ve just got some double-negatives coded in there that are negating any effect.”

Sewoon peers closely down at the print out of the original charm that he’s been scribbling all over while they researched. “It has to be complicated, though. We’re spelling for very specific circumstances.”

Jisung casually grabs Daniel’s copy and looks at it, brows furrowed low and mouth pursed in a comically large pout. “Yeah but that’s just for coding the species-specific stuff. Once you get Sewoon all defined in the charm you should be able to pretty simply write out the anti-enchantment and everything.”

Sewoon squints at the runes. “You’re sure?”

“Mostly.” Jisung ignores it when Daniel snorts at him and just tosses the paper back over to him. “Can’t hurt to try it, anyways.”

Daniel sighs. “Don’t pretend like you have all this experience with the course, hyung, you weren’t anywhere near a casting major.”

“I still aced this practicum, though.” He ruffles Daniel’s hair one last time, only getting a second in before Daniel’s swatting him away. He just got his hair re-dyed and the bleach had stung – his scalp doesn’t need any more attention. “Back in my day we picked slightly easier topics, though. You kids are crazy.”

Eventually Jisung wanders away, although not before extracting a promise from both Sewoon and Daniel that they would get beer and samgyupsal with him sometime after their exam. Sewoon watches him leave with an exceedingly amused expression on his face, and Daniel doesn’t really know what to think about it. Definitely not jealous at the fondness in that face. That would be the dumbest.

“Maybe he’s right,” Sewoon admits later that night. “We should focus on getting a clearer definition of the creature that the charm is supposed to ward against. There’s no good working definition for sirens, so maybe that’s our issue.”

“Maybe,” Daniel grumbles, opening the fourth Snapchat in a row from Jisung. The guy seems inordinately smitten with Sewoon, and keeps calling him ‘Ponyo’ and cute shit like that. It’s infuriating. “I’ll go back to some of the mer studies we looked at and see if any of that could work as a framework.”

Their deadline looms closer as the days pass, and the weather improves too. Sewoon moves from his lumpy sweaters to t-shirts and casual button-ups. Daniel very casually doesn’t notice how they still show off just how low his flush goes down his neck when he brings them both drinks to their research sessions, and Sewoon stammers a thanks while taking the tea that Daniel got him.

They write another draft, and another, and another. Sewoon enlists Gwanghyun’s help with the runes at some point, and he cleans up the edges of their transcriptions for them in between whining about his upcoming exams. Eventually, Daniel declares it time for another round of experiments, and they both make the climb back up the stairs to Sewoon’s apartment.

“I just hope it does _something_ this time,” Daniel complains, leaning against the wall while he waits for Sewoon to unlock his front door. “Even if it just makes my skin turn blue, or, like, gives me six fingers. I’ll take anything at this point.”

Sewoon laughs and pushes open the door, leading the way into the apartment. “You say that now, but I know you’d whine for days if you thought you got turned any less handsome.”

Daniel scoffs as he waves hi to Gwanghyun. “You and I both know that’s impossible. I could totally rock six fingers.”

Sewoon shakes his head fondly as he heads into his room and lets Daniel close the door after him, making sure to get it firmly closed and sealed. “I’ll cross my fingers for you then, all five of them.”

It’s a little less nerve-wracking this time around. Daniel sits back down at his spot on the floor, back to the pile of blankets, and Sewoon’s hands shake a little less as he tunes his guitar.

“Have you written any new songs?” Daniel asks, half to try to shake off the awkward tenseness to the air that has begun to creep in and half just out of curiosity.

“Not recently,” Sewoon admits, settling into the stool at his desk. “I’ve been kind of busy lately.” He shoots an annoyed look at Daniel, but it’s so clearly an act that he just laughs in response. He’s never really understood how the freshmen that try to take their table think Sewoon’s so intimidating – even when he gets his sharp mer teeth he looks cute.

“I’ll play something different than last time,” Sewoon continues, looking down at his guitar. “Which isn’t very good science, actually. We should be keeping things as constant as possible.”

Daniel shrugs and pulls out the most recent draft of their spell. “If it works then it works, if it doesn’t then we have a problem. Don’t worry about it.”

Sewoon’s mouth twists a little but he nods, and Daniel takes that as a go-ahead for the spell. He casts it again, just like last time, although the simplification of the anti-enchantment portion of the charm shortens the overall cast time to about thirty seconds.

Again, he doesn’t feel anything when he finishes casting it. No shiver down his spine, no popping of his ear drums, nothing. He just looks back up at Sewoon and shrugs, before leaning back against the blankets.

Sewoon huffs and after a few moments of just him breathing he finally strums a chord and starts to sing. Like he said, it’s a different song this time, something a little less playful and more melancholic. Daniel settles further into the comforters and lets his mind drift, waiting for the insistent creep of the siren song under his skin.

It doesn’t come. Instead he just watches as Sewoon sings, shooting him nervous glances every few moments. Each time Daniel just shrugs a little, and Sewoon’s brows knit a little closer and closer together.

Finally, the song finishes the first chorus, and Sewoon stops. He just looks at Daniel for a moment, something carefully optimistic lighting up in his eyes. “Nothing?”

“Nothing. I think.” Daniel tilts his head side to side, waiting for the kind of seasick, dizzying rush that he got last time, but it doesn’t come. He shoots Sewoon a thumbs up. “I think it worked? Somehow?”

He can see Sewoon gulp, and then carefully place his guitar back to the side. “Um. Ok.” He looks kind of as if he doesn’t know what to do with himself, hands twisting together in his lap as he regards Daniel. “We did it. We did it?” He looks like a puppy getting teased with a toy just out of its reach.

“We did it.” Daniel confirms, shifting excitedly on the ground. “Sewoon, I think we did it.”

“We should really test this on someone else. Maybe it’s just because you cast it – we should get someone else to listen, with you casting it for them. It can’t be this simple.” Sewoon insists, fingers squirming restlessly.

“Maybe it’s just that no one really tried before?” Daniel suggests, only a little hesitant because he feels raw energy coursing through his veins. “Small sample size, and all that.”

Sewoon shoots him a look. “And this isn’t a small sample size?” He shakes his head, dismissing the thought, and continues. “Still, we should try someone else. Just – to be sure.”

“Well,” Daniel starts, and heaves himself up off the ground. “I think we might just have the perfect lab rat right outside.”

It’s not hard to convince Gwanghyun to agree to their terms, especially once he finally grasps the fact that they haven’t just been secretly hooking up for the past twenty minutes. The accusation makes Daniel shift his weight awkwardly but Sewoon seems unfazed, and steadily talks Gwanghyun into letting him sing for him.

“This is so cool,” Gwanghyun exclaims, settling in on the ground next to Daniel. “I can’t believe you guys got it to work.”

Sewoon and Daniel exchange a glance, and Sewoon shrugs. “We _think_ it worked. It’s possible it was just, like, other factors or something.” He balances the guitar on his knee and plucks a string. “You’re our next test subject.”

Daniel casts the spell again. It goes smoother this time, more familiar, and still there’s no ensuing feeling or anything magical. Gwanghyun looks like he was expecting more, but they both just wait for Sewoon to start.

Sewoon sings the same song, carefully, and Daniel still doesn’t feel the same siren effects that he did the week before. He can appreciate Sewoon’s voice more, this way, and the way that his mouth tilts in a smile around the words.

Before he realizes it, though, Gwanghyun’s slumped against his shoulder, boneless. When Daniel looks over and tries to balance him back up he sees the look in his eyes – dazed, like he forgot where he was – and he gulps. “Sewoon, stop, it didn’t work.”

Sewoon stops with a screech of his guitar and he jumps up, darting forward to Gwanghyun. “Gwanghyun,” he says, taking the sides of his face gently. “Hey, wake up.”

Gwanghyun blinks and shakes the effects off almost instantly, coming alert under Sewoon’s palms. “Oh. Hey, hyung.” He sounds bemused and a little awkward, brows coming together in confusion. “Did you sing already? You did, right? I – it’s a little fuzzy.”

Sewoon makes a low noise of distress and shakes Gwanghyun’s head. “I’m sorry. I really thought it would work.” He looks over to Daniel. “You were fine, right? Still?”

Daniel shrugs and nods. “I guess it’s still functioning as a single-user charm. It only worked for me, because I was the one who cast it.”

Sewoon huffs out a sigh and releases Gwanghyun’s face. “That’s something, I guess.” He quiets, and seems to draw back into himself. “I… I was really hoping we could make an atmospheric effect. A group charm.”

“You’ll get it, hyung.” Gwanghyun shakes himself and grins at them both, seeming completely unaffected by the fact that he just got over being enchanted. “You’ve got, like, a whole ‘nother month.”

 

It’s halfway through May and their work on the charm has ebbed in favor of both of them focusing on studying for their final exams in their respective departments. Daniel had locked himself in one of the leak-proof magic practicing booths in the Casting department building and thrown hex after hex at a dummy, and according to the handful of texts that he got from Sewoon he was doing essentially the same thing.

They finally agree to meet back up at the café they went to that first day, on a dreary Saturday just after the last of the exams. The practicums are on a little bit of a different schedule, and they have until early June until they have to present their work to the board, but they clearly have a lot of work to do.

Daniel gets there first, way earlier than he needs to, and sits at his laptop for a little while. All of a sudden, just as he’s checking the time and wondering when Sewoon will get there, a clap of thunder sounds outside of the building and sends the barista jumping from her spot at the counter in surprise.

“Shit,” Daniel mutters, watching through the window as the grey skies suddenly open up and sheets of rain come falling down, hitting the sidewalk with a roar and sending the people walking by into a spring. “Hope he has an umbrella.”

He doesn’t. Almost as soon as Daniel finishes his sentence he sees Sewoon. His face is covered, but something about the shape of his shoulders is familiar enough for Daniel to be able to recognize him. He has a hoodie on, and his hood down over his face and almost to his nose, but he’s clearly soaked.

Sewoon ducks quickly into the café but keeps his hood on, doesn’t even approach the counter but instead just makes a beeline for Daniel.

“Hey,” Daniel hedges, as Sewoon flops into the seat across from him in a pile of wet limbs. “Are you ok?”

Sewoon finally throws his hood off and then immediately cups his hands around the sides of his neck, protective. “Yeah, stellar.” His hair is plastered to his forehead and tickles into his eyes in wet strands, and when he looks at Daniel his irises are a few shades greener than they usually are. “I forgot how much I hate spring sometimes.”

Daniel can’t help but raise his eyebrows, especially when he notices what looks like a dusting of blue-green scales on the backs of Sewoon’s hands. “Fuck. You really _are_ mer, aren’t you?”

Sewoon gives him the dirtiest look Daniel’s ever seen on him and promptly steals Daniel’s coffee. “Yeah, drink it in, this’ll be your only opportunity. I really hate going gilly in public,” he continues, dropping his eyes down to the table top as he takes a sip of the Americano, only to grimace.

Daniel steals the cup back – he knows at this point that Sewoon hates black coffee, and he’s already looking over at the barista as if he can somehow telepathically order a latte or something. “It doesn’t look that bad. Your teeth are out.”

Sewoon makes a face, fully showing off his piranha-like fangs. “If you had any survival instincts you would watch it. I guess we’ve already proven that you’re completely devoid of those.”

Daniel grins and sips his coffee, ignoring the part of him that he completely attributes to the girls in his high school that screams about indirect kisses. “That’s what makes me so valuable to science, though.”

Sewoon shakes his head but smiles, softer and less toothy. Now that his hands are down Daniel can see the faint slits of gills at the sides of his neck, although they already look like they’re closing up and smoothing out as he air dries. “How’d your exams go?”

Daniel grimaces and shrugs. “They went. I’ll pass, I’m not worried about that, but I think my advisor is a little disappointed that I didn’t ace them like she wanted me to. How about you?”

“I think they were alright.” Sewoon yawns, and then blinks sleepily outside through the window. “I definitely fucked up my sleep schedule for a little while.”

Daniel tsks and points the straw of his Americano at Sewoon. “You need a keeper, I swear. You know Gwanghyun texts me all worried whenever you don’t come home by 3 in the morning?”

Sewoon blinks. “Does he?” He huffs and props his chin up with a hand. “That kid. He means well.”

“Sure,” Daniel says, because he can’t say ‘I really wish your roommate would stop assuming that we’re dating, not because I necessarily have an issue with the concept but I think you definitely would’. “Have you made any headway with the charm?”

“Some,” Sewoon says, and spreads out his slightly water-logged notes on the table. “I looked into atmospheric charming a bit more and added some of that in, so hopefully that will spread out the area of effect. I think it works better if we do it that way, as opposed to doing a maximum number of persons effected.”

“Agreed,” Daniel mumbles, scratching a note on that into the margins of his own copy of the charm, now on its tenth or so iteration. “I made some changes to the siren definition, too. My friend who works in archiving at the National Magic Institution found some old documents that had a draft of a siren definition in them, for some reason, so I tweaked some of that into ours.”

“That’s great,” Sewoon mumbles into his palm, attention focused like a laser on the notes he’s making. “Also, you know what’s strange? I’ve looked at the spell backwards and forwards and I still can’t figure out how we managed to accidentally code a single-user effect into it.” His eyebrows knit together, frustrated. “I don’t know why the old version only worked for you.”

Daniel shrugs. “I’m just that good of a caster, I guess.”

Sewoon shoots a bemused look at him, the kind you give a kid who thinks they’re doing something impressive and want you to watch. “Of course you are.”

They scratch out bits of the spell, add in others, and before Daniel realizes it it’s almost dark out and the barista is shooting them impatient looks. Probably because they only bought one thing among the both of them. Finally, they finish up – cleaned and tweaked and transposed and organized, the spell’s runes wrap around each other like twining seaweed. That bit may be an entirely stylistic choice on Daniel’s part but he thinks it looks cool.

“Well,” Daniel grunts, stretching his arms high above him as they both finally stand up after what feels like days. “We should give this a shot sometime.”

“Yeah,” Sewoon says, although his voice seems unfocused. “We should.”

Daniel follows the line of his eyes and notices the bulletin board that’s posted on the wall above their table. It’s cluttered with flyers for take-out places and popup clothing stores, and he skims through most of them before he sees the one that Sewoon must be looking at. “An open-mic night?”

Sewoon nods, eyes still fuzzy as he looks at the posters. “In about a week.” He flushes a little, and wraps his arms around his midsection as if suddenly chilled. “That’s my birthday, actually.”

Daniel starts, and gives the flyer another once-over. “May 31st?” He looks back to Sewoon. “That’s your birthday?”

“Mmhm,” Sewoon confirms, and then rips his eyes away from the flyer to look back down and heave his backpack over his shoulder.

Daniel loves doing dumb, impulsive shit, is the thing. “We should get the charm finished for then. So you can perform,” he clarifies, feeling a little stung by the incredulous look that Sewoon pins him with. “The café is smaller than the radius that we have worked into the spell right now, it would be fine. We can do it.” He sounds maybe a little surer of himself than he actually is, but Sewoon’s expression is melting like a thin snow. “We _can_. I bet this version that we have now will work on Gwanghyun.”

They look at each other for a moment, Daniel’s last words thrown down like a gauntlet between them. For once, Sewoon’s face is entirely impossible to read, and that realization sends a slight shiver down Daniel’s spine. Still, he doesn’t look away.

Then – “Ok. Ok, we’ll try on Gwanghyun again, but if it doesn’t work then we go back to the drawing board. And,” Sewoon continues, loudly so he can be heard over Daniel pumping his fist in celebration, “Even if it _does_ work, we need to try it on more people before we do it here. That could get me in a lot of trouble, Daniel, if it doesn’t work.” His voice has quieted into something fragile that Daniel wants to cup in his hands.

“We’ll practice the hell out of it.” Instead, Daniel takes Sewoon’s upper arms, feeling entirely fueled by this challenge that he’s pulled out of thin air. “We’ll do it, though. You’ll be able to sing for people.”

Sewoon looks like he doesn’t know whether he’s allowed to be excited, and for a second his eyes flash the green that they had been when he had just ducked out of the rain. After a few moments, he nods.

Then:

The charm works on Gwanghyun.

“That song was awesome!” Gwanghyun cheers from his seat next to Daniel, clapping and grinning in approval. “I can’t believe you wrote that, hyung, that’s awesome!”

The charm works on Jisung.

“I _told_ you that simplifying it would help,” he nags Daniel, who doesn’t have it in his heart to tell him that they ended up making the actual charm _more_ complicated than it was when Jisung had seen it.

The charm works on the handful of Casting freshmen that Daniel bribes with his old notes from a class with a notoriously hard professor. The three of them leave crowing about never needing to study for a test again, and completely oblivious to the fact that they were just in a room with a siren.

That part makes Sewoon anxious. “I don’t really love the idea that they have to be unaware that I’m a siren,” he mumbles under his breath, and Daniel has to lean closer to hear properly. “It feels like I’m putting them in danger without their consent.”

“I mean, we definitely don’t have the funding to really give everybody insurance against enchantments,” Daniel reasons, hands shoved in his pockets because the urge to ruffle Sewoon’s hair has grown stronger these days. “And, look, this room is just as big as the café. It’s an area-based enchantment, so logically if it worked here it should work there, too, no matter how many people.”

“Logically, you would think so,” Sewoon deadpans, but Daniel can see how much more optimistic he’s gotten now that their experiments have been consistently working.

He lets himself bump Sewoon a little bit with his shoulder, and when Sewoon looks over he grins as wide as he can. “Hey. It’s tomorrow. I really think we should try this. If it goes bad you can just stop, and we can damage control then.”

Sewoon raises an eyebrow. “Are you volunteering for dealing with that legal mess?”

Daniel shrugs. “I’ve been working out. I think I could pass for a bouncer, and get everyone out of the café so we can run.” He flexes an arm cheesily and Sewoon swats him away, a flush springing up on the tops of his cheeks.

“Ok.” Sewoon takes a deep breath and seems to gather himself together. “Ok. Tomorrow. We’ll try it.”

“That’ll be the best birthday present ever, huh?” Daniel asks, voice dipping into something softer. “How are you gonna be able to pick what song to sing?”

Unexpectedly, Sewoon just flushes darker. “I don’t think that’ll be a problem,” he mutters under his breath.

Daniel spends the next day alternating between watching a documentary on ducks with his roommates and nervously doing push-ups. He doesn’t hear from Sewoon for almost the entire day, which sends him spiraling briefly into a panic that he’ll back out of actually singing, until his phone dings with a text at six at night and Daniel practically dives to get it.

_Meet there at eight?_

Daniel unlocks his phone, already grinning at the sparing way that Sewoon uses his words, even in text form. _Sounds good. Make sure you dress up, gotta impress all the girls there looking for cute singer guys._

 _That’s really not my primary concern tonight_ , Sewoon drawls back in response, and Daniel huffs out a laugh before heaving himself off the floor to change.

Sewoon looks as white as paper when Daniel walks into the café. He’s clutching the strap of his guitar with tight fingers, and his lips are red from biting them. “I just signed up,” he says in a rush the second Daniel gets close enough to hear. “I’m going fourth. I think I’m going to be sick, maybe.”

“Hey,” Daniel says, startled, and takes him carefully by the arms. “You’ll be awesome. If anything goes wrong it’s my fault, right? I’m the one casting it. You can blame me if something happens. You just sing.”

Sewoon’s throat bobs when he swallows, nervous. “That’s really easy for you to say.” He sighs and his shoulders sag a little. “It’s just so weird. I’ve never – I’ve never been able to do this before.”

“And you’re gonna kill it.” Daniel assures him, giving him a grin that he can feel tipping towards the edge of insanely-large. “I promise.”

The first three singers are all ok. Daniel privately doesn’t think that any of them can hold a candle to Sewoon, but Sewoon just makes approving noises at their performances and claps very politely when they finish their songs. He gets progressively more and more squirmy in his seat, though, and it’s all Daniel has to not put a hand on his knee just to get him to stay still.

Finally, the third singer is wrapping up and one of the girls organizing the thing is waving a hand at Sewoon, beckoning him over. “I think you’re on,” Daniel mutters, and Sewoon lets out a held breath.

“Do the spell now, while I’m going up,” Sewoon murmurs as he stands from his seat, lugging the guitar with him. “I don’t want to risk it not having enough time to be cast before I sing.”

“Got it.” Daniel salutes Sewoon as he heads over to the small stage area. It’s just the corner of the café with a stand mic and a boom for instruments, along with a few stools. There’s a second of figuring out mic heights and of Sewoon looking like a deer in the headlights as his sits down, the crowd murmuring around Daniel.

“Ok.” Daniel says to himself. He’s sitting in the back, which they figured was the least conspicuous place to very awkwardly and surreptitiously cast a spell. He unfolds the final version of the spell, waits for Sewoon to look up at him and nod, and then casts it.

Just like all the other times, the wording of the spell has gotten more and more familiar, and Daniel can almost feel now the spark of magic in his temples as he reads it. It might just be his imagination, but something about this iteration of the charm, read in this time at this place, slots in easily and when he finishes the casting his skin rises in just a few goosebumps.

He looks up from the paper when he’s done and Sewoon is still looking at him. The crowd has hushed now into an awkward silence, waiting for Sewoon to speak. After a moment, he leans forward into the mic and does.

“Um, hi everybody.” The mic isn’t that loud but Daniel has gotten strangely attuned to the sound of Sewoon’s voice normally, and so the projection is almost eerie. “My name is Jung Sewoon. I’m – this is a song that I wrote the other day.” He tries a chord, checking, and then firms his mouth around a nervous smile. “I hope you like it.”

He doesn’t realize it at first but Daniel finds himself clutching the edge of the small, round table he’s sitting at as Sewoon leads into the intro to the song. Sewoon’s voice sounded nervous but his playing is steady, and when he looks up again at the crowd his eyes immediately find Daniel and he starts to sing.

Almost immediately Daniel knows that it’s worked. There’s no hazy creep of siren song at the edges of his vision, just Sewoon’s voice ringing crystal clear in the small building. More than that, the casual group of people in the café don’t seem affected at all, even when Sewoon segues into the chorus. One girl at a table near Daniel hasn’t even looked up from her phone, which both pisses him off a little bit but also signals that hey – no enchantment.

Sewoon’s eyes are bright and hopeful. And, Daniel realizes, as he actually starts listening to the song, so are the lyrics. They’re optimistic, something like the sun between leaves of a tree, but also – it’s a love song.

And that realization tips over a domino in the back of Daniel’s mind. Throughout the last few weeks of them practicing and rewriting the charm, Sewoon had been writing this song. That thought burns through his stomach with something akin to embarrassment, only – not. Adrenaline pumps through his veins, because now he can’t get the thought out of his head that Sewoon wrote this song, in between them meeting up almost every day to work on the spell, and that maybe, maybe, he was thinking of him.

Then, the next domino falls, and quickly they cascade in an outward spiral. The second version of the spell, the one they thought had worked, had only worked on Daniel. Which made sense, because he hadn’t been effected by the siren song. It was logical – Daniel wasn’t blood related to Sewoon, so he wasn’t immune to his song.

But. The library, what feels like months ago now, back when they first started researching the charm at all. Sewoon telling him that those who were already enchanted by a siren were immune to their song. Those who were in love with the siren.

The itchy feeling he got whenever Gwanghyun accused them of secretly dating. Daniel wasn’t a total idiot, he had realized that he thought Sewoon was cute to some degree, but to have it be this deep was… intimidating. It was like when you step in a puddle after the rain that you think is only going to be an inch deep but then you end up soaked all the way up your calf. His stomach drops like he missed a step on the stairs.

He’s in love with Sewoon. And, maybe, there’s a chance that Sewoon is in love with him.

Slowly, the sound of clapping reaches his ears through the fog of his thoughts, and Daniel instinctively joins in and looks up. Sewoon is absolutely beaming. He’s clutching his guitar and bowing, just a little, and then standing up and walking over and coming this way and Daniel doesn’t think he can stop himself from touching him, because they _just did that_

“It worked?” Is the first thing Sewoon gasps out. Daniel stands up, chair screeching backwards, and grabs Sewoon by the wrist because they probably shouldn’t have this conversation in here.

“It worked.” And then he yanks Sewoon out the door of the café and to stand just outside the building, in the hazy blue of night. “You fucking genius, it worked.”

Sewoon looks stunned, dazed, guitar still held in front of him and between their bodies. “I sung for them.” He blinks, and looks up at Daniel. “I did. It worked.” His smile breaks into a toothy grin. “We are going to ace this fucking practicum.”

Daniel laughs out loud at the shock of Sewoon swearing, the sound echoing in the silence of the street. He quiets, then, and watches as Sewoon finally slings the guitar strap over his shoulder, hands shaking a little bit. “You did really good.”

“Thanks. I, um, I thought so. They seemed to like it.” Emotions must have something to do with the manifestation of his mer characteristics, Daniel has realized, because Sewoon’s eyes are bleeding into green again.

“Yeah. Um.” Daniel pauses, because how do you say this next part and not sound like a melodrama? “I think I figured out the thing you couldn’t figure out. How we managed to accidentally code a single-user parameter into the earlier draft of the spell.”

Sewoon blinks at him, eyes wide. “Did you? How?”

Daniel shrugs. “I think it’s more likely that the draft was just entirely broken. Like, no function at all, like the first one. Um.” He looks down and scuffs the toe of his sneaker against the sidewalk. “I think it was what you said before. Your song doesn’t work if someone’s already enchanted by you.”

There’s a moment of silence, and Daniel doesn’t really think he has it in him to look at Sewoon’s face. He looks at his feet, instead, at his sensible shoes and the way that he shifts his weight from one foot to the other. He hopes that’s a good shift.

Then, Sewoon reaches out and carefully brushes the back of Daniel’s hand with his knuckle. The touch sends a full rush of goosebumps up Daniel’s arm, and he finally looks up. To anyone else Sewoon may look blank-faced, but Daniel can tell – he looks shocked. “Are you – are you sure? About that?” His voice shakes just a bit. “You know what that means, right? The – being enchanted by the siren.”

And that, that’s not a rejection. “Yeah. I do.” Daniel tries a smile, and then lets it grow wider when Sewoon just blinks dumbly at him. “I think I may be in love with you, and really that’s your fault. You screwed up the whole scientific process.”

Sewoon blinks again, but affronted this time. “This is when you accuse me of not pulling my weight in this project? When you’re – when you’re confessing to me?” He huffs but Daniel can see the beginning of a smile on his mouth. “I see where your priorities are.”

Daniel laughs again and, slowly, steps forward. Sewoon doesn’t move back in response, he stands his ground against the wall of the café as Daniel lets himself move closer. “Is that ok, though?”

Sewoon just smiles at that, soft and gentle and completely free of piranha teeth. “I wrote a song about you, you idiot. Of course it is.”

And Daniel just has to kiss him then. They’re about the same height so it’s easy, simple as anything, and slots in just as completely as the spell did when Daniel cast it. Sewoon makes a soft noise against Daniel’s mouth and surges into the kiss, hands landing lightly on his shoulders while Daniel rests one against the side of his neck.

It’s electrifying. It’s like being stung by a bee made of lightening. Sewoon’s mouth is mostly soft but rough in the center where he bites it, and he rests against the brick wall when Daniel moves closer and tucks himself against Sewoon.

Then, after a moment, Sewoon pulls away and blinks at him again. His lids are heavy as always but there’s something almost mischievous in his gaze right now, something pleased. “You’re going to be insufferable about this, aren’t you?”

Daniel can’t do anything but grin, wide as anything, and duck back in to kiss Sewoon again quickly. “I’m really good at taking risks.”

“Gwanghyun will be happy.” Sewoon half-heartedly pushes at his shoulder when Daniel presses a kiss to the skin under his chin near his ear, and then again lower on his neck. “And we still have to figure out a way to spin all this as entirely ethical and scientific to the practicum advisory board next week.”

Daniel straightens back up and shrugs. “We’re geniuses. I’m sure we’ll figure it out.”


End file.
